Sometimes I hear pro-choice advocates on the radio and they say things like “abortion is a settled issue.” Perhaps they believe that. Meanwhile, the only reason they are on the radio is because it’s a very heated, live issue right now, particularly in my town of Ottawa, and not at all settled.

I have not seen any video footage outside the Bank Street abortion clinic. There are reports of harassment and intimidation. I am a pro-lifer who is against harassment and intimidation, no ifs, ands or buts about it. I’d like to know more about what has happened in front of the downtown Ottawa abortion clinic. I confess I pass by once in a while and haven’t seen anything. That’s not to say there aren’t problems. It’s only to say that I need more information other than what the clinic itself provides, given the heated nature of anything to do with abortion. If they have video footage, it would be great if they released that. They’d have the support of the pro-life community in curtailing violence, harassment and intimidation, that much is true.

Christie Blatchford writes about this issue in measured tones. She refers to what we on the pro-life side know as the “abortion distortion” without using those words. The abortion distortion happens when valid health information that would help women make informed choices is suppressed because it appears to be “pro-life.” And it happens when authorities use “an elephant gun to kill a flea,” as Blatchford puts it, which is what is about to happen as regards ensuring there is no harassment or intimidation outside abortion clinics.

This much is true:

But if she and Gibbons were members of Black Lives Matter, or the Tamils who about eight years ago blocked a ramp to the Gardiner Expressway, or almost any other protest group in this country railing about almost any other issue, they wouldn’t be being carted off to jail with such alarming frequency.

I read this piece and thought, yes, it’s the pro-choice memoir we all need right now. I actually agree with the Globe and Mail writer, Denise Balkissoon. 

The hallmark of the abortion movement can never be compassion to the child. It will never be that. Abortions take the life of that child without asking, without concern and without anesthetic. That’s why the start of this column is most curious: 

A pregnant teenager learns that the fetus she is carrying will be born without a functioning circulatory system. At no point will it be able to breathe for itself – there is no way that it can live. The teenager decides not to terminate the pregnancy, telling her obstetrician that she is “praying for a miracle.”

Twenty weeks later, the teenager gives birth. In a new memoir, the doctor, Willie Parker, writes of his “horror” watching the newborn’s immediate, inevitable death. “Born at term, the baby could feel pain … ” Dr. Parker writes. “She must have felt all the anxiety and panic that would accompany suffocating to death.

“In this case, an absolute reverence for life led to a situation that, to my eyes, consisted of nothing less than pure cruelty.”

Pro-choice people ask us to swap the cruelty we can see for the cruelty we can’t see. There is no evidence that taking the life of the unborn child in the womb is less cruel. The result, after all, is exactly the same, it’s just we saw a little bit less. 

When I miscarried at nine weeks, the hands of this new person were clearly evident. Tiny, perfect fingers, thin, transluscent. Real. Hands like the ones I’m using to type right now. 

So bring on the memoirs that describe how and when a man draws his line in the sand about when he can end the life of a baby versus when he can’t. It gets us all talking about the reality that is abortion. Killing kids ain’t no form of compassion–and that’s all the pro-choice movement has. That’s what they defend. I’ll wait for a miracle any day of the week. And hope for a doctor who isn’t negligent in providing pain relief after birth, if such a thing is sadly needed. 

I’m going to write more about this later. I saw Hush last night. Just quick this morning, let me give you the one word review. EXCELLENT.

It’s excellent. It’s a high quality, well-produced, extraordinarily thoughtful look at the possible physical and mental side effects of abortion for women.

It is near impossible to cut through the terrible din of people shouting about this issue. Near impossible, but this film may actually achieve a slight détente in the pro-life/pro-choice rhetoric. Indeed, that’s what it aims to do.

The film’s creator is herself pro-choice. So she comes to the issue asking questions. And she thoroughly researches the answers–giving respect to both sides in this dialogue of the deaf.

I’d say the biggest bombshell of the movie is the simple fact that major organizations like the National Cancer Institute have failed women. She was actually escorted out of the National Cancer Institute. She’s not a Michael Moore-style documentary maker–she’s thoughtful and respectful to abortion providers and pro-lifers throughout. That she was marched out spoke volumes to her, and to me too. Why not sit down and explain why there is no link between abortion and breast cancer, for example? They didn’t–so the film’s director Punam Kumar Gill  goes ahead and does her own research on the topic. What she finds is disquieting and compelling.

After the movie, there was a panel discussion. Three women shared about their abortions and the outcomes for them. Brave to do so. One of them suffered 11 miscarriages and has only one son today. Eleven miscarriages. So important to hear their stories.

I’m going to think about how to host a viewing and you should too. What they need is money. From their Facebook page:

Saturday, APRIL 16 –
the date for our most exciting Crowd Fund ‘Perk’ – the chance to watch a private screening of the film prior to any other release AND from the comfort of your own home! On Saturday April 16th (available for 24 hours that day) we encourage you to invite a group of friends or family to watch the film online, and start some healthy conversation! All you have to do is give a donation to the Hush crowd fund p…age (www.indiegogo.com/at/hushdoc), claim your perk, and you’ll get an email from us a few days in advance with the link and individualized password for the online event!

Limited discount price for this Live Stream event!
The first 100 people who click on the “Secret Perk” link below will get access to a $25 ticket to this Live Stream event. This Perk is only available here, to individuals on the Hush mailing list or followers of our Facebook page.
There are another 100 – $50 Sale tickets through the Indiegogo page, and unlimited tickets to this Live Screening for contributors at $100 or greater.

Help us hit our goal of getting 300 people in on this advanced screening!

I say let’s help them hit a goal of getting 3000 people in on the advanced screening.

There’s my slightly longer than one word review. An amazingly well put together documentary. I’m going to go out on a limb and say if anyone is criticizing it, they are doing so because they haven’t seen it.